Beauty Influencer’s Sunday Column Vol.3: If you could start your blog over

Happy Woman's Day! I hope you are all having a great Sunday. It is again one of those BISC Sundays and today's question is something I have been asked very frequently, what would I do differently if I could start with my blog all over again. I have answers from 6 of our members, including myself below. Admittedly I have learned from the answers of the others myself. I see blogs and in general social media as an environment where one needs constant development and learning. I hope it is useful for you as well.

If you could start your blog all over again,

what would you do differently?

RAE | Canada |the Notice: a beauty blog
If I could start my blog all over again, I’d skip the first few years of terrible product photos! And I’d start on WordPress this time, tagging everything extensively, so that none of my old posts would be weighed down by unchangeable Blogger styling and old posts would be easier to find. Day to day, however, I think it would be run much the same as it is right now — it would just have a better archive.

SARA | Germany |Color Me Loud
This is a hard question because I am not blogging for a such long time (less than 2 years). I believe I would invest in a light box a little earlier than later. I am still struggling to find the right lighting for product and portrait photography. Since my lights are not bright enough, it takes longer to edit the photos. I have just installed a new banner this summer. I wish I could have done it before because it changes the website a lot. But the most important of them all, I would write PR of the companies before the first year is over. I always waited for the right moment, the right page hits etc. only to find out much smaller/newer blogs keep the available slots occupied. Another thing I would do would be starting with social media as early as possible, because it takes time to build it up. But whatever you do, do things you like because it is your hobby and not a job.

MELISSA | Switzerland |Kiss & Make-up
I’d probably think things through a lot better. When I started my blog I really didn’t have a clue what I was doing. It was so cringe… My lay-out was a nightmare, my photos were embarrassingly bad and I just basically had no idea what having a beauty blog really meant. Of course over the years I learned a lot and I’m very happy with where I stand now with the blog, but if I could do it all over again I’d definitely do more research before launching myself as a beauty blogger and I’d try to approach it all a lot more professionally and less than a hobby.

LAARNI | Philippines |Xoxo Laarni
This is a funny question because I already started my blog all over again. My #1 reason was my old blog’s niche was too broad. It was running for five years but I eventually got tired of it. Also, it was penalized by Google because of sponsored posts so buying a new domain name was my best option.

KRISTEN | USA |Glambunctious
I’d focus on spending money on products that are exciting to me, even if they aren’t new to the market, and not go broke trying to keep up with every new release. There’s no sense in spending so much money on each new collection when there are already blogs upon blogs that cover these releases that receive the items gratis from PR. I also started out posting 7 times per week which quickly became exhausting (blogging is not my full-time job). I decided to only post when I was inspired and that decision has led to 2 years of happiness!

JAA | USA/Thailand |Hello Jaa
I’d start experimenting with portrait studio lighting sooner. My older posts would have been more complete. I’d also make sure to choose a layout that accommodates larger picture size because I believe larger photos create higher impact. Another thing would be to tell myself to not be shy and connect with other bloggers sooner! It is more fun to have someone with the same interest to talk to and you just learn so much from them! Last thing would be to implement a Pin It button on all my photos right away because Pinterest is among the top three social networks that drive traffic to my blog the most.

I used to have a DIY light box before, it was helpful but stopped using it because it takes a lot of space so now I use a white background like a white paper. Editing photos is so tedious! If I only could hire someone to do it for me! haha!

Hi Laarni,maybe you would like to invest in something which comes in a box. I purchased a "suitcase lightbox" which I can carry anywhere I want and if it has to disappear, I take it to another room in seconds. I think if one has the right light and background, editing is much faster. I am still struggling on the lights though.